


Liminal

by drinkingstars



Series: Clarity [1]
Category: Actor RPF, Canadian Actor RPF, Schitt's Creek (TV) RPF, Schitt’s Creek RPF
Genre: Implied Relationships, M/M, Multi, Pre-Poly, Sort Of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-06-23 12:19:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19701238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drinkingstars/pseuds/drinkingstars
Summary: Dan has always liked spaces like that.





	Liminal

**Author's Note:**

> I know virtually nothing about Clare except that she loves Noah, loves the Toronto Raptors, and loves the hell out of Dan Levy. I've made up everything else. You may have read this first part as a standalone on tumblr.

“That’s a wrap on Rose Apothecary, thank you everyone,” the Production Coordinator calls when the director and DP have viewed the last take and given the thumbs up. There’s a hoot or two and a smattering of applause before a crew edges in to start pulling out light cables and tearing down blackout paper. 

Dan looks around to try to take it all in but he immediately feels lightheaded. Luckily his dad is there with an arm around him, and then Noah is at his side pulling him into a hug, clapping him on the back.

Dan clears his throat and gets everyone’s attention. “Thank you everyone, don’t break yet don’t break yet. We still need: unit leads, Kosta, Rob, Connie, Amy, both Mikes, Dad, and Beth. Let’s all meet in the Galley and we’ll try to make it quick. Everyone else check timeline and call sheet updates when they come in because we’re tightening everything  _ way _ down tomorrow. Sorry in advance but you’ll thank me when the game starts, thank you so much.” People clap again at that and start to trickle out, heading in different directions toward transpo, to see what’s left at crafty, or across the street to the Galley.

The Galley isn’t a real anything, just an empty space adjacent to the false kitchen built out behind the Cafe that has, over the years, served for meetings, storage, freakouts, a daycare, a massage room, an emergency nap room, an emergency crying room, and probably a few other things Dan doesn’t need to know about. The Production Coordinator hands Dan a stack of binders and they start to walk and talk, a few other people following with questions, and a few straggler fans in the street slowing them down on the way for exclamations of love, gifts and photos. 

Jenn catches his elbow and pulls him into a tight hug in her kitty cat sweatshirt that he knows she wants to keep, probably so she can burn it on the next full moon. He pulls back and they just look at each other and her face is so soft, and he gets scared for a second that he won’t remember all of these little moments when his heart felt like this. He shakes his head against that deluge and squeezes her hand, saying, “Nope, nope, not going to cry today. Have too much fucking work still.”

“Save the crying for the wrap party,” she says with a wink and he nods emphatically, inhaling deeply.

Noah catches up to them and only gives Dan a tight-lipped half smile, which Dan knows means he’s feeling it too. “Think I’m going to head back with Jenn in the van, yeah?” he asks, gesturing over his shoulder. Dan starts to nod and turn away but catches himself.

“Actually can you stay for this?” Dan says, squinting in the low afternoon sun because he forgot to put on his sunglasses, shifting the armload of binders he’s holding.

“Yeah of course, if you need me.” Noah nods and smiles like it’s not a problem, because nothing is ever a problem for Noah. He gives Jenn a hug goodbye and a kiss on the cheek, and takes half of Dan’s binders off his hands.

Everyone crams into the Galley around a table piled with too much sugar and caffeine, and Dan passes around production timelines and pencils. “Gonna leave most of this to Kosta and Beth, but here’s my rough plan: get every member of this crew home or to a bar before kickoff.” 

Everyone laughs, jittery with chocolate and coffee and adrenaline but all-in to make this work, as they always are. Dan wipes his glasses clean and puts them on, just catching his dad looking at him with that kind of inscrutable pride that parents should really never let their children see, because it’s overwhelming. Dan has to put his head down in his binder or he’s definitely not going to make it through this meeting. “Let’s get to work.”

*

The sky is darkening purple blue black when they finish, another short round of clapping and thank yous and everyone is back out on their little street, heading for vans and making plans for dinner or drinks. Eugene stops to talk to a few people and then turns to look for Dan. “We’re still having dinner, right? Are you coming right now?”

Dan looks between Noah and his dad, touches the mole on his chin as he thinks. “Actually can you go ahead and get a table? We’ll be like twenty minutes behind.” His dad nods and pats him on the shoulder, heads to the car that’s waiting just for him at the corner. He turns back at the last second to ask Noah, “You coming too?” Noah looks to Dan like he’s unsure but Dan answers for him.

“Yes, he is, Clare too.” Eugene waves back at them in confirmation and opens his car door.

The street is clearing out and Dan just watches for a moment, the cars and vans pulling out and the fans long gone. It has that eerie, but still familiar feeling, like being in the high school hallways after hours, or onstage in a dark, empty theater. Dan has always liked spaces like that.

Noah looks too, for a few moments, but finally has to ask. “What are we…”

Dan lifts his chin, a decisive motion, and points them across the street. “Come with me.”

*

They have a nighttime security guard just for the store when the set is still loaded, the nicest retired Mountie you could ever hope to know, named Ruth. Dan and Noah’s shoes crunch in the gravel as they cross over to the Rose Apothecary entrance, and Ruth greets them warmly. 

“One more game, Ruth, ahhhhh!” Noah says excitedly and Ruth bounces on the balls of her feet. 

“You really think they can finish it off in 5?” Ruth asks like she’s too nervous and hedging her excitement properly. 

Dan has only been watching sports for about a week, but he gets that. 

“Hope so, hope so. Let’s win it at home.” Noah grins and Dan just smiles past them, gazes at the door of David and Patrick’s store.

“They break everything down over there?” Ruth gestures toward craft services on the other side of the street.

“Almost, but there’s fresh coffee if that’s what you’re looking for,” Dan offers, stepping up to the door and motioning for Noah to join him.

“Think I’ll go check it out,” Ruth says, stepping off the porch and heading off. “About ten minutes?”

“Ten minutes would be great,” Dan says, putting his hand on the door. 

“You got it, boss.” Ruth’s boots thud away in the distance and Dan opens the door. The lock works but he doesn’t actually have the key, so luckily it’s still open from crew coming in and out. 

They walk through the threshold and Dan fumbles in the dark for the row of functional light switches he knows is there somewhere, behind a ladder shelf full of fake plants. He feels around and flips the first one, which floods the front of the store with glaring fluorescents. “Nope,” he says, quickly flipping it off and going for the furthest one away instead. A row of recessed lights toward the back wall instead glows warmly, casting shadows around on the shelves and stacks. “Better,” he says, smiling at Noah and taking them a few steps inside. 

They’ll strike all this tomorrow. It breaks Dan’s heart, but he’s ready for his heart to break a hundred times in the next few weeks and months. At least he hopes he is.

He can feel Noah watching him curiously as he scans the walls, taking in all the beautiful details that someone else crafted for him, lovingly placed here to make his dream, make David’s dream, come to life in this place.

“I didn’t really need to be at that production meeting,” Noah starts first, dragging his toe in a wide arc around Dan as Dan just stands there looking around. Dan takes a steadying breath and finally looks down at Noah. He pushes his glasses up on his nose and sticks his hands in his pockets.

“No. I’m sorry about that,” Dan shakes his head.

“But I needed to be here,” Noah says slowly, nodding his head because he gets it. He always gets Dan. That’s why he’s here at all.

“I thought so. Just once,” Dan says, carefully.

“We’ve definitely never been in this space alone,” Noah says, laughing softly, and that is very true. The room is always packed with people and equipment just out of the frame, and even the sweetest moment shared here between David and Patrick had a hundred pieces of hot lighting and eyes on them.

“Ok, so,” Dan starts, clearing his throat and turning to Noah. He folds his arms and adjusts his stance, feet wider apart because Beyoncé says standing that way gives you courage and a voice, but also because it brings him a little closer to Noah heightwise. “There’s gonna be, like a million of these in the next few weeks, but I wanted to have just one, if we could, here. And sober,” Dan adds, thoughtfully, and kind of rolls his eyes knowingly because they’re all a mess and this is going to get messier. 

Noah nods slowly and digs his top teeth into his lip, never looks away from Dan. He isn’t the guy who looks away, and Dan has always loved that about him.

Dan plows ahead as bravely as he can. “I need to thank you. For every single piece of this. For taking that call. For reading the sides. For giving this a chance.”

“Oh my god, Dan, me? You...I…” Noah starts to break in, his voice pitching up.

“Nope this one’s mine,” Dan cuts him off, puts his palm on Noah’s chest and takes another breath. “You...you gave this everything, and you gave me everything. You gave Patrick to us and you gave David...literally the whole end of this story, and I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing - “

“That is 100% not true, Dan,” Noah interrupts again, putting his hand on top of Dan’s where it lays on his chest and tucking his fingers underneath. Dan shakes his head against his protest and links their fingers tighter together.

“I didn’t know what this, for  _ sure _ all looked like, until you brought it all together. And that’s not just me that thinks that, it’s my dad, it’s the writers, it’s all of us. You filled in the blanks.”

“Dan, you  _ wrote _ that. I didn’t…” Noah’s voice cracks and he grips Dan’s fingers a little tighter. “Fuck you’re not going to make this easy are you.”

“I can’t. It’s not. And Noah I have gotten really used to having you in my life, like all the time, and I don’t want to go back to where...I mean not to before, obviously, but I don’t want to not see you for two years ever again.”

“I don’t want that either,” Noah says softly. “Kind of hoping you’ll keep me around.”

Dan purses his lips and nods, furtively glancing around the room again. “I’m gonna try. But the sophomore slump is real and I’m probably going to spend all my money on shoes and cocaine and wind up living in my parents’ poolhouse in a year, so maybe you’ll be keeping me around.”

“A year? That’s ambitious.” Noah grins up at him and Dan looks down with tears stinging the corners of his eyes and it’s Noah who closes that space, thank fucking god. 

He tilts his chin up and he kisses Dan, on the corner of the mouth, and then properly. Their lips are dry and their hands still clutch together at Dan’s chest, keeping them a respectful distance apart, so Dan softens into him, kisses him back and lets himself be kissed.

Noah pulls away gently, but doesn’t step back, just untwines their tangled up fingers and rubs up and down Dan’s arms, breathing quietly.

“Been a long time since you kissed me,” Dan says airily, leaning into him and letting his arms come up to hug Noah closer. Not too close, just closer.

“I kissed you like two hours ago,” Noah laughs into his chest and Dan leans back, holds him at arm’s length so he can really look at him.

“That’s not what I mean,” Dan says, that twisty smirk at one corner of his mouth that was always him.

Noah’s eyes twinkle in the soft light and he pulls Dan all the way into a hug, pressing his lips against Dan’s neck as he tucks his head over his shoulder, because that was always him, too.

“I love you, man,” Noah whispers at Dan’s shoulder and it’s the sweetest, stupidest, most assuring thing. Dan presses his face into Noah’s neck, fiercely fighting actual tears now.

“I love you so fucking much,” he laughs and cries, and Noah is just holding him and what the fuck is he going to do without this. “And I love Clare,” Dan adds urgently, sniffling into Noah’s shirt and Noah vibrates with a humming sound in Dan’s ear, his face still buried in Dan’s neck.

“She loves you too,” Noah breathes out, and Dan hugs him close, tries to breathe all of this in.

“Does she know?” Dan asks with a sudden hitch in his breath, and he didn’t quite mean to blurt that out, but now he definitely wants to know the answer, even if it hurts like hell.

“About us?” Noah asks.

Dan just nods forcefully, scrunching his eyes shut and crushing his glasses against Noah’s shoulder.

“She knows everything, Dan.” Noah answers easily and evenly, like it should be apparent. 

“And she still loves me?” Dan asks incredulously, mostly entirely joking but he’s honestly happy to know this. To be known.

Noah just whispers, “of course,” like that, too, should be apparent, and Dan is grateful for this, and for that time. It wasn’t much, and it was a long time ago, but it’s theirs to keep.

“Good.” Dan says simply, feels the warm brush of Noah’s lips at his throat again.

They just hold each other, in the middle of this beautiful place that was uniquely theirs and carries Dan’s whole heart, his hopes and dreams, through them and through Patrick and David and out into the world. He finally shakes himself free and fiddles with his glasses, Noah still holding his other hand as natural as breathing or crying. 

Noah clears his throat, actually turning away and making a soft coughing sound against his fist. He rubs his hand over his head then looks steadily back up at Dan, maybe trying to regain some semblance of composure, some coolness. “You better fucking call me. I mean call me anytime but you call me when you’re ready for the next thing, eh?” 

Dan laughs through his nose at that. “As soon as I know what the fuck I’m doing after this, or have something real to show you, yes, you’ll be the first person I want to have read it.”

“I’m offer only.” Noah quips, tipping his chin up in a cocky little grin that is all Patrick, and Dan can’t help himself.

“Yeah you are,” Dan says with a little rumble in his voice, and presses his mouth carefully over Noah’s one more time, parting his lips ever so slightly and he feels Noah smile, kiss him back.

There are headlights then through the windows and the door, their car back to the city. Right on time.

“Mmm hmm,” Dan hums against Noah’s mouth, then pulls back, almost reverently. “Ok. Let’s get out of here before we do something that will make your fiancée not love me anymore.”

Noah follows close behind Dan as they back trace the few steps that had brought them here. “Oh, she’d probably like it,” Noah chirps as Dan reaches again to turn off the lights for the last time, his parting shot. For now.

“Don’t fucking tell me that,” Dan shakes his head but he’s smiling as he takes Noah’s hand in his and pulls the door open out into the night.


End file.
